Kan Tai-keung 靳埭强

Born in Panyu, Guangdong Province in 1942, Kan Tai-keung was deeply influenced by his grandfather, Yao Sheung and became passionate for painting from childhood. He moved to Hong Kong in 1957 and in 1964, he started to learn watercolor painting and sketching with his uncle Kan May-Tin. Later he took the Chinese Ink Painting course by Lui Shou-kwan and the Applied Design course by Wucius Wong at the Department of Extramural Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 1967, he started his career as a designer and founded his own design company in 1976. His talent for design is evident in his ambitious calligraphic paintings. His bold brush work depicting mountains, rivers, rocks, mists and clouds blend into large areas of white background mysteriously mutating into written words. The generous use of neutral white background is linked to the fundamental aesthetic principle of bubai (placement of void) in Chinese calligraphy and literati painting.